Survey analysis and discussion on cultivating scientific research quality among undergraduates in medical colleges

Abstract To explore rational measures to improve medical undergraduates' scientific research quality by investigating and analyzing their scientific research situation. A questionnaire survey was conducted in March 2022 among medical college/university undergraduates across four grades and five majors. Five hundred and ninety‐four questionnaires were distributed, and 553 valid copies were returned, with a 93.1% return rate. The results showed that 61.5% of the students had an intense interest in research experiments, and 46.8% thought it was important for undergraduates to participate in research experiments, but only 17.5% often participated in them. Among the students, 85.0% thought that the main factors preventing them from participating in research experiments were academic stress and insufficient time, and 82.6% hoped that mentors would focus on practical skills training; only 13.0% read literature at least once per week, and 93.5% were not proficient at organizing and using literature. Among the participating undergraduates, more than half were strongly interested in scientific research, but academic stress, unclear participation modes, and insufficient literature retrieval skills limited undergraduate scientific research practice and improvement of scientific quality. Therefore, it is essential to cultivate undergraduates' interest in scientific research, ensure that they have spare time to engage in scientific research, improve the undergraduate scientific research mentorship system, and enhance relevant scientific research abilities to cultivate more innovative talent in scientific research.


| INTRODUC TI ON
Cultivating undergraduate scientific research quality is a major step in the cultivation of innovative talent. Entrusted with the responsibility of cultivating students' scientific research and innovation ability, colleges and universities in China implemented many successive training programs with such an aim at the end of the last century to reinforce the cultivation of undergraduate scientific research quality. 1 As early as November

2006, the Ministry of Education launched the National Innovative
Experimentation Program for Undergraduates, which advocated innovative experimentation reform for undergraduates, encouraged students to participate in scientific research and invention training at the undergraduate stage, and promoted colleges' and universities' exploration and establishment of a problem-and project-based teaching model to provide more platforms for the cultivation of undergraduate scientific research quality. 1 Moreover, the Challenge Cup, a national college students' extracurricular academic science and technology works competition, has been held every 2 years since 1989 to facilitate the development of extracurricular academic and scientific activities among college students. This effort has resulted in the discovery and fostering of considerable outstanding talent with academic potential in science and technology.
Medical colleges' and universities' scientific research development is particularly prominent. Currently, with an emphasis on internationalization, platforms, and innovation, medical colleges and universities in China are introducing high-end talent, acquiring large instruments and equipment at an internationally competitive level of advancement, and cultivating innovative talent with high scientific research quality, as these institutions strive to build a first-class scientific research platform. However, some phenomena have recently emerged in the cultivation of undergraduate scientific research quality in medical colleges and universities in China, such as students' disinterest in scientific research, insufficient attention among schools and teachers to undergraduates' research experiments, 2,3 and insufficient exercise of students' research ability. 4 These problems seriously hinder colleges' and universities' efforts to foster innovative talent in scientific research. Therefore, this study identified the prominent problems via questionnaires to examine viable paths for cultivating undergraduates' research quality, actively investigate effective methods of stimulating undergraduates' desire for research exploration, expand the modes of research skills training, and reinforce research concepts, to refine the innovative talent cultivation system.

| Survey content and methods
The survey covered four major aspects: the basic situation of un- Microsoft to collect, organize, and analyze the information. The survey, a paper questionnaire, was completed anonymously with all respondents' prior informed consent. The returned questionnaires were strictly screened, and all invalid responses were excluded.

| Questionnaire results
Five hundred and ninety-four questionnaires were distributed and collected, of which 553 were valid, with a valid return rate of 93.1%.
Although part of the problem has been confirmed by previous studies, 5-7 this paper analyzes it in a different way, yielding experimental results that are not identical to those of previous studies.

| Survey respondents' participation in scientific research
The survey results showed that 61.5% of the students had an intense interest in research experiments, and 43.6% thought it was important for undergraduates to participate in research experiments, but only 17.5% participated in research experiments often (Table 1). This indicates that most university/college students have recognized the importance of research practice in improving their overall ability as undergraduates but are still lacking in practical operation.

| Factors that hinder survey respondents' participation in research experiments
The survey results showed that academic stress, lack of opportunities and platforms, and lack of professional guidance are the main factors that hinder students' participation in research experiments, among which academic stress was the most important factor, with a prevalence of 85.0%. (Figure 1).

| Types of support that survey respondents want from their mentors
According to the survey results for multi-select questions, most students hoped that their mentors would provide training in innovative thinking and practical research skills, and some indicated that they hoped their mentors would share theoretical knowledge ( Figure 2).

| Survey respondents' ability to read, organize, and use literature
The survey results showed that 52.1% of the students read literature at least once per year, and only 13.0% read literature at least once per week; moreover, 93.5% of the students were not proficient at organizing and using literature ( Table 2). The data indicate that F I G U R E 1 Factors influencing students' participation in scientific research in different grades. Scale = Number of people selecting this option/Total number of people 553.
F I G U R E 2 Aspects that students expect tutors to guide them.
students' habit of reading literature needs development, as does their ability to organize and use literature.

| DISCUSS ION
To adapt to the fast-developing era, colleges and universities in China have always taken improving undergraduates' scientific research quality and cultivating their research and innovation ability as the focus of teaching reform. With the deepening of the reform, undergraduates' scientific research ability has improved significantly, but there are still many aspects that need to be enhanced. By reporting the results of this survey on undergraduates' scientific research situation, the author offers the following suggestions regarding the current status of undergraduate scientific research and the problems that tend to arise.

| Stimulate interest in scientific research and adopt a favorable attitude
The survey results showed that juniors' disinterest in scientific research was significantly greater than that of seniors, probably be-

| Reasonable scheduling to facilitate students' exploration of scientific research knowledge
The survey found that the most important factor that prevented the survey respondents from participating in scientific research experiments was academic stress. Some differences in the proportion of students who selected academic stress were observed according to the year of study. "Based on a survey of our undergraduate students' research and a review of relevant literature, 7,9,10

| Improve the project-based undergraduate research mentorship system
Undergraduate research mentorship is a significant model for cultivating practical skills, scientific literacy, and innovative thinking in undergraduates. The careful guidance of mentors plays a key role throughout students' scientific research process. 12 Many colleges and universities actively explore the undergraduate research mentorship system for talent cultivation, 13 and this model has greatly contributed to the undergraduate talent cultivation mechanism and management system. Among the options, project-based undergraduate research mentorship is more conducive to increasing opportunities for students to interact with their mentors. We in-

| Emphasis on data collection and organization and other abilities
Undergraduates engaged in scientific research tend to focus on the application of experimental skills, but many lack the ability to read literature, collect and organize scientific research data, and write papers. 15

DATA AVA I L A B I L I T Y S TAT E M E N T
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

D I SCLOS U R E
The authors have no conflicts of interest with respect to this study.

E TH I C S A PPROVA L S TATE M E NT
The Ethics Review Committee approved the study. (No: 2022-21).